Sunday, September 23, 2012

9-23-12

How goes it everyone ?!! It was a great week with a lot of traveling involved. I am feeling the results of it today. So Monday we were able to have a "P-DAY" and it was fun cause a member took us golfing and out to lunch ! Then we had a lesson with P who is moving to San Diego at the beginning of October, but he is doing well. Then we headed to the San Luis Valley for exchanges with the zone leaders there. Its about a 2 1/2 hour drive but it is a beautiful drive. They are a Spanish speaking companionship so it was a reality check ! Tuesday we spoke Spanish all day !!! Well ... I attempted HAHA. But I did say two prayers in Spanish. Then on Wednesday we had a meeting with President and that evening we headed to Parker to go on exchanges with those zone leaders the next day. They live in the basement of a member home and it is a really nice set up. Parker is a rich area and it was different working out there but Elder Maumau and I saw some great miracles that day. That night we traveled back and continued our meeting with President. Friday morning we continued our meeting with President and prepared for our "Train the Trainers" meeting and held it that evening. It went really well, we have some very good trainers for these next couple of transfers. Then the big day finally came !!! Saturday morningwe got up earlier than usual and got to the church building where Elder Holland would be addressing us. Thankfully all of our missionaries got there on time and were seated in an orderly fashion in preparation for the brethren to arrive. Elder Clark and I, along with the zone leaders formed a little choir for the event. We sang "We'll Bring The World His Truth," to start off the meeting. We first heard from Bishop Davies of the presiding bishopric and he spoke about his mission and his time serving as a mission President in Puerto Rico. Then we heard from Elder Gonzalez from the presidency of the quorum of the seventy. He is from Uruguay, where Bishop Davies served his mission. He talked a lot about the importance of the Book of Mormon and how we should look for every opportunity to teach and testify from it. It was great ! Then we heard from Elder Holland ... it was intense !!!! He had a cordless microphone so he came down and walked around as he spoke. I was sitting in the second row of the middle section in the chapel. I was on the end so he would be standing inches from me at times ( I know pretty cool huh?) :]. He has a lot of energy and spoke with such power ! For me the things he said that stood out the most was to NOT return home and be who I use to be before my mission. He talked about how upsetting it is when missionaries return home and walk away from the gospel. He said, "I WANT YOUR MISSION TO CHANGE YOU FOREVER !!!" There were so many other great things he said and talked about but that is what I wanted to share. He has a great sense of humor too. It was a very uplifting meeting and I feel so blessed to have been able to attend. One other thing that was great was when he discussed how the first 20 verses of the Book of Mormon outlines the profile of a prophet. Pretty amazing ! Well tomorrow we bring in the new AP and he is a great missionary who is from Idaho. I love you all !!!!!!